Category Archives: Culture

The New York Times Magazine – June 9, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (June 7, 2024): The latest issue features The Mayday Call: How One Death at Sea Transformed a Fishing Fleet…

The Mayday Call: How One Death at Sea Transformed a Fishing Fleet

The opioid epidemic has made a dangerous job even more deadly. And when there’s an overdose at sea, fishermen have to take care of one another.

That Much-Despised Apple Ad Could Be More Disturbing Than It Looks

Tech companies are running low on new experiences to offer us. A new ad for the iPad contains revealing hints of where they could go next.

By PETER C. BAKER

Ibram X. Kendi Faces a Reckoning of His Own

In 2020, the author of “How to Be an Antiracist” galvanized Americans with his ideas. The past four years have tested them — and him.

By RACHEL POSER

Culture: The American Scholar – Summer 2024

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (June 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘An Olympian for the Ages’ – Why George Eyser’s feats at the 1904 Games deserve to be celebrated today; Joshua Prager on a forgotten Olympian, Mickalene Thomas and the art of remixing, new poetry from Ange Mlinko, and more…

A Forgotten Turner Classic

Who was George Eyser, the one-legged German-American gymnast who astounded at the Olympic Games?

Femmes Fantastiques

Mickalene Thomas and the art of remixing

We Are the Borg

Is the convergence of human and machine really upon us?

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil

In the fall of 2014, an MIT cognitive scientist named Tomaso Poggio predicted that humankind was at least 20 years away from building computers that could interpret images on their own. Doing so, declared Poggio, “would be one of the most intellectually challenging things … for a machine to do.” One month later, Google released an AI program that did exactly what he’d deemed impossible.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – June 5, 2024

Country Life Magazine (June 4, 2024): The latest issue features Britain’s Wildlife Safaris; Tulips, tanks and teddies – The great passions….

Stuff and nonsense

Collectors explain their peculiar passions, from tanks to taxidermy, tulips to teddy bears, to Kate Green, Agnes Stamp, Tiffany Daneff and Octavia Pollock

A walk on the wild side

Ben Lerwill embarks on a great British safari, seeking out the best places to witness the full colour of Nature, from red deer to golden eagles and brown argus butterflies to grey seals

Standing on ceremony

The spectacle of The King’s Birthday Parade will summon up a vision from a bygone age, suggests Simon Doughty, as he chronicles the evolution of the ceremonial uniform

Beccy Speight’s favourite painting

The CEO of the RSPB chooses a dramatic and evocative work

Crossing the channel

Carla Carlisle reflects on the 80th anniversary of D-Day and wonders ‘what comes next?’

A Georgian vision

John Martin Robinson visits Gatewick in West Sussex and finds a modern country house harbouring an 18th-century spirit

The legacy

Kate Green hails F. M. Halford’s contribution to dry-fly fishing

The longest day and the shortest night

Harvest hopes and the magic of midsummer, with Lia Leendertz

Her green and pleasant land

Mary Miers paints a picture of Peggy Guggenheim’s rural idyll

Fresh as a summer breeze

Natasha Goodfellow picks out botanicals to add complexity and character to both food and drink

Interiors

A lambing shed turned home office wows Arabella Youens

London Life

  • Russell Higham on London Zoo memories)
  • Garden squares and gasholders
  • Gilly Hopper tucks into canal-side dining
  • Nick Foulkes indulges in The Emory experience

Floreat Etona

Education and horticulture still go hand in hand at Eton in Berkshire, as George Plumptre discovers

Kitchen garden cook

Savour tart gooseberries this summer, says Melanie Johnson

Native herbs

John Wright extols the virtues of the underused wild marjoram

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell’s deck-shoe shuffle

Travel

  • Emma Love sets sail on luxury yachts
  • Lauren Ho puts her best foot forward in Zambia
  • Pamela Goodman aces it

A little to the left

Being left-handed is no barrier to greatness, finds Bernard Bale

The New York Times Magazine – June 2, 2024

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (June 1, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Walnut and Me’ – How my dog helped me accept that someday we will all die…

What My Dog Taught Me About Mortality

Walnut rescued me from death more than once—but not in the way you might think.

The Battle Over College Speech Will Outlive the Encampments

For the first time since the Vietnam War, university demonstrations have led to a rethinking of who sets the terms for language in academia.

By EMILY BAZELON

Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – June 2024

Smithsonian Magazine (June 1 , 2024) – The latest issue features ‘Inside Earth’s Newest Caves’ – Clues about early life emerge from Iceland’s active volcanoes…

Journey Into the Fiery Depths of Earth’s Youngest Caves

What Iceland’s volcanoes are revealing about early life on our planetand’s volcanoes are revealing about early life on our planet

This Doctor Pioneered Counting Calories a Century Ago, and We’re Still Dealing With the Consequences

When Lulu Hunt Peters brought Americans a new method for weighing their dinner options, she launched a century of diet fads that left us hungry for a better way to keep our bodies strong and healthy

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – June 10, 2024

Donald Trumps small hands reach toward outstretched handcuffs.

The New Yorker (May 30, 2024): The new issue‘s cover features John Cuneo’s “A Man of Conviction” – The former President is found guilty on all thirty-four counts.

Trump Is Guilty, but Voters Will Be the Final Judge

The jury has convicted the former President of thirty-four felony counts in his New York hush-money trial. Now the American people will decide to what extent they care.

When the Verdict Came In, Donald Trump’s Eyes Were Wide Open

In the courtroom with the former President at the moment he became a convicted felon.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – May 29, 2024

Country Life Magazine (May 28, 2024): The latest issue features

We salute you

As Blind Veterans UK pays its own special tribute to survivors of the D-Day operation, Octavia Pollock puts words to Richard Cannon’s poignant photographs

 ‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything’

Allan Mallinson examines the key role that country houses played in preparations for D-Day, aided by well-stocked wine cellars and countesses in the canteen

 ‘Because it’s there’: the Mallory and Irvine mystery

Was the 1924 British Everest Expedition a success or failure? Robin Ashcroft takes a broad perspective as he sifts through a century of speculation

There’s no place like home

In the first of four articles, Annunciata Elwes investigates how flexible working has opened up the North to City commuters

Country Life International

Holly Kirkwood explores the Balearic Islands — the life and sol of the Mediterranean Sea

Growing in stature

Chelsea provides many magic moments for Tiffany Daneff, who finds inspiring gardens on Main Avenue and in the Great Pavilion

Native herbs

John Wright raises a glass to hops, that stalwart ingredient of the ale-brewing industry

The late Sir Andrew Davis’s favourite painting

Before his death last month, the celebrated conductor selected  a compelling and inspiring work

Elegant and congruous

In the second of two articles, John Goodall charts the recent history of Hartland Abbey, Devon

The legacy

Kate Green reveals Thomas Darley’s role in the story of the English Thoroughbred horse

Empire protest

A Passage to India reflects the rising tensions of the British Raj. Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece 100 years on

 ‘Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures’

John Lewis-Stempel marvels at the variety of microscopic wild-life that calls tree bark home

Luxury

Hetty Lintell serves up a new tennis collection, plus Heston Blumenthal’s favourite things

Interiors

A bright, colourful drawing room and Alidad at Wow!house

Spring-fed genius

Charles Quest-Ritson reveals how springs have shaped Selehurst garden in the West Sussex Weald

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson celebrates sweet and juicy strawberries

Achilles healed

The ancient Greeks harnessed its medicinal powers, but yarrow now has a role to play in modern agriculture, discovers Ian Morton

The darling buds of May

May Morris is finally stepping out of the shadow of her famous father, William — and not before time, argues Huon Mallalieu

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – June 3, 2024

A woman rides a scooter along a river and New York Citys skyline.

The New Yorker (May 27, 2024): The new issue‘s cover features

Sergio García Sánchez’s “Scoot” – The artist depicts the thrill of leaning into summer in the city.

The People’s Commencement at Columbia

It’s 1968 all over again, as New York Ivy Leaguers flip the script and stage an unofficial counter-graduation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The Bronx Cheers—Mostly—for Trump

Biden’s a pedophile; Trump’s a fascist; the maga Hasidim have to get their act together—and other sentiments spewed at the former President’s rally in Crotona Park.

How to Pick Stocks Like You’re in Congress

The team at Autopilot, an app that lets you copy the trades of Nancy Pelosi’s husband (up forty-five per cent last year) or Dan Crenshaw (up forty-one), choose their newest offering.

Culture & Cities: What Its Like To Live In Amsterdam

DW Euromaxx (May 25, 2024): Beyond Amsterdam’s famed canals, bikes, coffee shops, and the Red-Light District lies a deeper narrative of what it’s like to grow up and be young in the Dutch capital.

CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:30 Living arrangements 01:56 Education 03:11 Heritage 04:24 Social life & hobbies 05:39 Legal milestones 06:55 Red-Light District 07:25 The pros and cons of living in Amsterdam

Meet Cosmo, a 19-year-old student and native Amsterdammer, as he shares his perspective on life in the city: how he spends his free time, gets around, and how Amsterdam has shaped him. #Amsterdam #Netherlands #YoungEuropeans

The New Criterion – June 2024 Arts/Culture Preview

The New Criterion – The June 2024 issue features:

Protecting America’s promise

by Ronald S. Lauder

On combating anti-Semitism & anti-Americanism.

All the rage

by Victor Davis Hanson

On White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman.

The masterpiece of our time

by Gary Saul Morson

On The Gulag Archipelago at fifty.

Building Palm Beach

by Benjamin Riley

On the town’s history & architecture.